OUR ECONOMY

Jon is a small business owner, executive, and entrepreneur — the CEO of a company that produces documentaries investigating organized crime and political corruption.

He knows what it means to grow a company, meet a payroll, and balance budgets.

Jon has a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics, where he specialized in trade relations between the US and China.

Jon’s training in economics and his international business experience will help him craft smart, effective economic policy that empowers our community’s businesses to compete globally, create good-paying jobs with benefits, and build Georgia into an economic powerhouse.

Jon will stand up in Congress for a dynamic, forward-looking, fiscally responsible economic policy that maximizes opportunity for entrepreneurs, workers, and investors.

Jon will work to level the playing field for small businesses so they can grow and create jobs that will empower Georgians to strive, save, send our kids to college affordably, and retire comfortably.

Jon will work in Congress to reduce the tax burden on small businesses and simplify small business tax filing. He will work to repeal wasteful, anti-competitive special interest subsidies that make it hard for entrepreneurs to raise capital, enter the market, create jobs, and compete with larger firms who have lobbyists in Washington.

Jon will go to work to ensure that health insurance premiums don’t cripple businesses or force them to lay off employees.

Jon will defend equal pay for equal work and fight any effort to allow wage discrimination against women or minorities.

Jon believes the minimum wage should be a living wage. He will support an increase in the federal minimum wage indexed to cost of living and implemented at a pace that allows employers to adapt their business plans.

HEALTH CARE

It is in our strong national interest that every American have quality, affordable health care.

Whether it’s a newborn just home from the hospital, a mother battling cancer, or a veteran returned from overseas, our health isn’t negotiable.

Our quality of life, our strength, and our prosperity depend on it.

It’s time to move beyond the tired, partisan debate over health care policy, agree on some basic principles, and solve problems.

No American should suffer or die from preventable or treatable illness.

No American should be unable to make ends meet from out-of-control medical bills.

No business should go under or lay off employees because it can’t keep up with health insurance premiums.

Jon will work to defend Medicare and Medicaid, ensure young people can stay on their family plan, prevent discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions, and ensure veterans swiftly get the care and benefits they’ve earned.

Jon will defend women’s access to contraception and a woman’s right to choose and fight any legislation or executive action that would allow insurance companies to discriminate against women.

Jon will go to work to ensure that health insurance premiums don’t cripple small businesses or force them to lay off employees.

Jon will introduce legislation to simplify and streamline the online health insurance marketplace so Georgians can easily understand the available plans and sign up quickly, without stress, at any time of year.

It is inefficient and dangerous for Americans to rely on the emergency room to treat preventable illness. Jon will work to ensure all Americans have access to preventative care, which will save lives and taxpayer dollars.

CIVIL LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS

Throughout our history, patriots, abolitionists, civil libertarians, suffragettes, and civil rights heroes have made huge sacrifices to advance liberty and justice for all. We should continue striving together toward a more perfect union.

Jon will fight for our civil liberties to ensure that every American is free to determine the course of their own life so long as they don’t harm others.

Jon’s mother is an immigrant who became a small business owner, an American citizen, and a champion for women’s rights. America needs a strong border policy that protects American citizens and American jobs. We should welcome those strivers who, like our own forebears, seek the opportunity to work hard, play by the rules, and build better lives in America.

Jon believes it is a violation of core American principles to slander entire religious groups and that it’s unconstitutional to ban anyone from entering our country on religious grounds.

As our representative in Congress, Jon will fight tirelessly against discrimination, hate speech, or violence against Americans on the basis of their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or place of birth.

Jon will stand up for due process and equal treatment under law for all of us, regardless of race or income level. Jon will honor law enforcement and stand up for Georgians who are mistreated by the criminal justice system.

OPEN SKIES

Jon will be a vocal advocate for aggressive enforcement of Open Skies agreements to fight foreign subsidies for foreign airlines that put American air carriers and crews at a competitive disadvantage. Open Skies agreements can reduce costs and expand airline options for consumers, and foreign government subsidies in the airline industry prevent fair competition and skew the market in favor of nationalized or partially-nationalized airlines.

US-ISRAEL RELATIONS

Jon is committed to Israel’s security as a homeland for the Jewish people and to strengthening the historic, unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel.

Jon has traveled twice to Israel — once while a graduate student at the London School of Economics and once after his Bar Mitzvah. Jon has deep personal relationships with family who live in Jerusalem and many friends who live in Israel.

As a national security staffer in Congress, Jon worked closely with talented Israeli diplomats to strengthen diplomatic and military ties between the U.S. and Israel.

While working in Congress on military and counterterrorism programs, Jon drafted a Congressional resolution demanding the inspection of Iran’s secret nuclear facilities. He also worked on defense authorization bills that helped fund the Iron Dome and David Sling’s defense systems, which are essential to protecting Israel from missile and rocket attack.

Israel is a small country in a volatile region that must be equipped to prevail in military conflict with multiple hostile nations and terrorist organizations. Israel must maintain a Qualitative Military Edge (QME) in the region. Jon will work to ensure Israel’s military capabilities enable it to defend itself in a large and protracted multi-front war against hostile states and terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iran is a major state sponsor of terrorism and an avowed enemy of Israel that must not acquire nuclear weapons. In Congress, Jon will push strongly for strict enforcement and uncompromising monitoring of Iran’s compliance with obligations to restrict uranium enrichment and to cease ballistic tests. He will support the imposition of additional sanctions in response to ballistic missile tests that violate UN Security Council resolutions and work to strengthen efforts to prevent the flow of arms from Iran to Hezbollah.

Jon believes the United States should play a leading role in efforts to secure a lasting peace in the Middle East. Such a lasting peace will require direct bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the aim of which should be the achievement of a two-state solution with Israel and a Palestinian state living alongside each other in peace. Any peace deal must protect Israel’s territorial integrity and ensure Israel’s security as a sovereign democratic state and a homeland for the Jewish people without threat of terrorism or invasion.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Jon is a former national security professional who understands the threats America faces and the complexity of international politics.

When he was a national security staffer on Capitol Hill, Jon held a top secret security clearance and worked with our military and intelligence community to keep Georgians safe.

In Congress, Jon will push for a tough, smart foreign policy that protects our national security while avoiding reckless, destabilizing missteps like the Iraq War.

While on Capitol Hill, Jon worked on classified naval, cyber, air, and counterrorism programs. He embarked with the US Navy during multinational military exercises, worked closely with senior officers to improve readiness and capabilities, and helped draft annual defense legislation.

As an investigative film executive, Jon has managed high-risk operations in conflict zones. Last year, one of his investigative teams documented evidence of war crimes on the front line in Iraq. His teams have also exposed the corrupt theft and black market sale of foreign aid funded by American taxpayers.

Jon will investigate Russian interference in American politics and defend the NATO alliance, which remains essential to our national security. He will stand with our allies and oppose Russian meddling and expansion in Europe.

Jon will oppose unnecessary military intervention overseas and will only support the use of force where US national security is at stake.

While on Capitol Hill, Jon worked with a joint Congressional-DOD task force to combat sexual assault in the military. It remains a crisis of epidemic proportions. Jon will make ending military sexual assault a core goal of his service in Congress.

Jon will back efforts to destroy ISIS without deploying regular US ground forces. He will work to ensure that law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and the military have the resources and authorities necessary to prevent terrorism without sacrificing privacy and human rights.

Jon will vigorously oppose the torture of detainees and prisoners of war in US custody.

Destroying ISIS
Our top priority must be to ensure the safety and security of the United States, Americans abroad, and our allies, which means prioritizing the identification and destruction of ISIS and its leadership no matter where they hide. That includes authorizing special operations and targeted strikes to kill ISIS leadership. That aggressive, targeted effort overseas should be complemented by a strong, constitutional counterterrorism policy to protect our territory and the territory of our allies from threats that are homegrown and that seek to infiltrate our borders. We need robust intelligence-sharing relationships with our allies, and we need to continue to target ISIS in Syria and Iraq, applying U.S. airpower in coordination with local partners, such as the Kurds, and the very limited deployment of U.S. special operations forces. What we should not do is get drawn into a ground war in Iraq and Syria. We can accomplish our objectives in Iraq and Syria through the use of airpower in coordination with those local partners.

Attacking ISIS’ Roots
Coalition forces should redouble efforts to destroy ISIS’ capacity to generate military power, which relies upon the production of black market oil, hostage taking, and support from key financiers. These criminal activities generate the cash that ISIS then uses to obtain weapons, control territory, and export terrorism. We must continue to attack oil production infrastructure in ISIS-controlled territory and support efforts by allied local forces to halt ISIS’ ability to export oil, especially across the Turkish border. U.S. and coalition air forces should continue airstrikes on ISIS oil production facilities and oil supply convoys. U.S. and partner law enforcement agencies must also target other black market revenue streams, like the sale of antiquities. Coalition forces and regional governments must also coordinate with Turkish authorities to crack down on the supply of weapons to ISIS by eliminating key smuggling routes, while targeting ISIS’ local small arms production capacity. Additionally, we must target ISIS’ financiers while continuing to pressure Gulf states to stamp out the “unregistered charitable organizations” used to channel funds to ISIS.

Fighting Radicalization Online
We must do a better job of creating strong intelligence partnerships that share key information to uncover and stop attacks before they happen, identify home-grown threats, and target online websites and forums that spread hatred and make it possible for ISIS to recruit and promote itself globally. We can and must use our extensive cyber resources to identify threats early.

Increasing Intelligence Sharing
We need to increase our outreach and coordination efforts with European allies and intelligence partners around the world. It’s vital that we have clear and effective channels established to coordinate intelligence among our allies, while ensuring the secrecy of U.S. intelligence sources and methods are protected. We must strengthen agreements and procedures that streamline intelligence sharing with our European allies, and step up intelligence sharing between federal and local law enforcement agencies at home.

Stronger Involvement From Our Allies
Victory over ISIS – and liberation of large parts of Syria and Iraq – requires that like-minded nations throughout the Middle East and the world working together in strong partnership. The United States has assembled a broad coalition of nations to destroy ISIS. Yet while the United States and Western European allies take active roles in the fight against ISIS, some Arab states have not pulled their weight, offering only token support. We should increase diplomatic and economic pressure on partners – especially Gulf states – to dedicate more financial and military resources to the fight against ISIS. By putting pressure on our less cooperative partners in the region we can build a more effective fighting coalition.

Strengthening the Military
While Congress has yet to authorize defense spending for FY 2018, our priority must lie in funding our special operations forces, naval, and air forces so they can effectively and precisely target ISIS leadership and provide close air support for local partners such as the Kurds while minimizing civilian casualties. Congress will need to sustain significant resources for U.S. forces fighting in the region for the continued fight against ISIS.

SERVING OUR VETERANS

As a national security staffer in Congress, Jon’s greatest honor was serving our men and women in uniform, our veterans, and their families.

Jon assisted veterans who needed help with the VA, worked to raise awareness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and soldier suicides, and fought to ensure active military personnel and their families had the resources they needed in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The VA should treat our veterans as the VIP clients they are. There is no excuse for months-long delays in service. Jon will work to hold the VA and its workforce accountable to respond quickly and fully to veterans’ needs. Jon will deliver high quality and timely constituent services to our veterans as one of his highest priorities.

HONORING & DEFENDING SENIORS

Our country decided long ago that America’s seniors will not be neglected or forgotten. A civilized, prosperous nation cannot abandon its elders to destitution or homelessness, or allow them to go without health care.

Medicare and Social Security are vital programs that reflect our values and our commitment to honor and support seniors.

Seniors paid for these benefits throughout their lives. Many of those from the Greatest Generation, who fought through the Depression and won World War II, still count on these critical programs.

We should honor all seniors as if they are our own family.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Jon will be informed by scientists, not lobbyists, when it comes to environmental policy, and he will work to make Georgia a clean energy economic powerhouse.

There is a clear scientific consensus that climate change is driven by human activity and that it threatens global prosperity, health, and security. This is not just the opinion of activists; it is the studied conclusion of our country’s distinguished scientists. Our military and intelligence agencies agree. Jon will oppose efforts to undo the climate change agreement reached last year in Paris and will work to make the United States a global leader against climate change.

Clean air and clean water are not controversial. They are essential to our health, our prosperity, and our quality of life. Jon will oppose and investigate failures to enforce environmental laws. He will support our national parks and work to conserve America’s treasured wildlife and natural beauty.

EDUCATION

All Georgians – all Americans – should have the opportunity to reach their full potential. We should ensure our children and young people get the best education in the world.

Jon will work in Congress to ensure our local schools get the resources they need to hire and keep great teachers, to invest in technology to keep students learning at the cutting edge, and to reduce class sizes.

Teachers should be honored, given the support and tools they need to do their best work, and paid better.

Jon will work to make college more affordable. Student debt shouldn’t prevent young Americans from saving, investing in their careers, and reaching their potential. Jon will work to reduce the burden of student debt on young Americans.

Jon will promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education for Georgia’s students and professional education to qualify young Georgians for the workforce after high school.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

When it comes to crime in America, we need to rethink our priorities. Jon is an experienced investigator who has successfully targeted organized criminals and corrupt officials.

Jon will introduce legislation to empower task forces at the Department of Justice dedicated to fighting organized crime and political corruption. He will work to give law enforcement the tools and resources they need to take down organized criminals wherever they are.

Jon will work to reduce mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders, which punishes taxpayers and wastes American lives.

ANTI-CORRUPTION

Jon is the CEO of an award-winning company that specializes in hard-hitting anti-corruption investigations for international news organizations.

Since 2013, Jon has led more than 20 investigations of political corruption, organized crime, and armed conflict around the world.

Jon’s teams have investigated and exposed dozens of corrupt politicians and judges, the theft and corrupt sale of U.S. taxpayer-funded aid intended for starving children and HIV patients, quack doctors who kill and mutilate women, and high-level organized criminals.

As a senior national security staffer in Congress, Jon led investigations of malfeasance by defense and intelligence contractors.

In this era of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” we need leaders who will back their claims with real evidence and call out politicians who lie for short-term gain.

Jon believes passionately in integrity and transparency in government and he will use his real-world experience to root out and expose corruption and fraud in Washington.

Jon will introduce legislation to reform campaign finance laws and reduce the toxic and corrupt impact of money in politics. He is opposed to the Citizens United decision allowing unchecked, anonymous money in politics.